Thursday, September 30, 2010

Back in spring I wrote an almost daily blog from the legislature about what was happening each day. That blog gave me another direct way to share my thoughts. Many people encouraged me to continue writing. So, I thought I would get back to sharing my thoughts about politics, media, and whatever else is on my mind. Sometimes it will be daily and sometimes maybe not even weekly. So let’s call it periodic ok? Welcome to my blog.

The fall session of the legislature has been called back for October 28th. On my Twitter and Facebook sites I posed the question: “If you could make only one change to a provincial law or introduce one new law what would it be?” I wondered if anyone would respond. After all many people feel politics has no connection to their lives (I’ll write a blog entry on that subject another day). I guess I didn’t need to wonder. Many people tweeted, posted, and e-mailed their ideas.

Some were straightforward – such as banning VLTs, privatizing liquor sales, limiting lottery winnings, and giving transit the right of way.Some were very deeply thought out and backed up by evidence, such as the suggestion that strengthening animal cruelty laws on the basis that animal abusers become human abusers. Education was a popular topic – one thing everyone seemed to agree on is education must be a priority and there are ways to improve the way we deliver it.

Some of the ideas people sent I agree with. Some I don’t. Above all I was impressed people cared enough to send their ideas to me. With all the negative talk about politics in the past few years I wondered if anyone would care at all. For all we might want to complain about, we live in a country where we can have opinions, express them publicly, and we can demand and expect that our opinions be respected, even if not everyone agrees. So I look forward to your comments and ideas as I toss some ideas and thoughts out there. By the way dear reader: I might not always agree with you. You might not always agree with me. But that’s part of the fun. I try to be open to changing my mind. I hope you do the same. Great things happen in communities where people talk and debate about ideas.